Títulos en Historia y filosofía

In these brilliant essays, Lightman explores the emotional life of science, the power of imagination, the creative moment, and the alternate ways in which scientists and humanists think about the world. Along the way, he provides in-depth portraits of some of the great geniuses of our time, including Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, Edward Teller, and astronomer Vera Rubin. Thoughtful, beautifully written, and wonderfully original, A Sense of the Mysterious confirms Alan Lightman's unique position at the crossroads of science and art.

Why did the US intelligence services fail so spectacularly to know about the Soviet Union's nuclear capabilities following World War II? As Vince Houghton, historian and curator of the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC, shows us, that disastrous failure came just a few years after the Manhattan Project's intelligence team had penetrated the Third Reich and knew every detail of the Nazi's plan for an atomic bomb. What changed and what went wrong?

In this provocative history of contemporary debates over evolution, veteran journalist Tom Bethell depicts Darwin's theory as a 19th-century idea past its prime, propped up by logical fallacies, bogus claims, and empirical evidence that is all but disintegrating under an onslaught of new scientific discoveries. Bethell presents a concise yet wide-ranging tour of the flash points of modern evolutionary theory. Bethell's account is enriched by his own personal encounters with of some of our era's leading scientists and thinkers.

By calling everything into doubt, Descartes laid the foundations of modern philosophy. With the celebrated words "I think therefore I am," his compelling argument swept aside ancient and medieval traditions. He deduced that human beings consist of minds and bodies; that these are totally distinct "substances"; that God exists and that He ensures we can trust the evidence of our senses.

The discovery of the quantum - the idea, born in the early 1900s in a remote corner of physics, that energy comes in finite packets instead of infinitely divisible quantities - planted a rich set of metaphors in the popular imagination. Quantum imagery and language now bombard us like an endless stream of photons. Phrases such as multiverse, quantum leap, alternate universe, the uncertainty principle, and Schrödinger's cat get reinvented continually in cartoons and movies, coffee mugs and T-shirts, and fiction and philosophy.

In 1862, ambitious scientist James Glaisher set out to do the impossible: ascend higher into the skies than ever before to establish his groundbreaking research. Glaisher’s death-defying journey forms the story of the major motion picture The Aeronauts, starring Eddie Redmayne as Glaisher and Felicity Jones as his balloon companion, Amelia Wren. Written in his own words, The Aeronauts chronicles Glaisher’s incredible flights and discoveries first hand, as well as his observations on the pioneers who came before and inspired him.

When a waiting world learned on April 12, 1955, that Jonas Salk had successfully created a vaccine to prevent poliomyelitis, he became a hero overnight. Born in a New York tenement, humble in manner, Salk had all the makings of a 20th-century icon - a knight in a white coat. In the wake of his achievement, he received a staggering number of awards and honors; for years his name ranked with Gandhi and Churchill on lists of the most revered people.

What is embryonic stem cell research? Why is it so controversial? What is its relationship to human cloning? Events are moving so fast and biotechnology seems so complicated that many of us don't have an informed opinion about issues that are remaking the human future before our very eyes.

Albert Einstein and Erwin Schrödinger were friends and comrades-in-arms against what they considered the most preposterous aspects of quantum physics: its indeterminacy. Einstein famously quipped that God does not play dice with the universe, and Schrödinger is equally well known for his thought experiment about the cat in the box who ends up "spread out" in a probabilistic state, neither wholly alive nor wholly dead.

In his most ambitious work yet, Shermer sets out to discover what drives humans' belief in life after death, focusing on recent scientific attempts to achieve immortality by radical life extentionists, extropians, transhumanists, cryonicists, and mind uploaders, along with utopians who have attempted to create heaven on earth.

Scientists often challenge conventional wisdom and spark debates that last for generations. But no scientist has fuelled more debate than Charles Darwin. To some he is the revolutionary 'father' of evolution. To others he is the perverse 'originator' of modern eugenics. In The Darwin Myth: The Life and Lies of Charles Darwin, author Benjamin Wiker brings these conflicting identities to light.

When acclaimed science writer Stefan Klein asks Nobel Prize-winning chemist Roald Hoffmann what sets scientists apart, Hoffmann says, "First and foremost, curiosity." In this collection of intimate conversations with 19 of the world's best-known scientists (including three Nobel Laureates), Klein lets us listen in as today's leading minds reveal what they still hope to discover - and how their paradigm-changing work entwines with their lives outside the lab.

"Se non si perde tempo non si arriva da nessuna parte". Albert Einstein. La voce di Gabriella Greison, fisica, scrittrice e attrice teatrale, racconta in maniera semplice la fisica quantistica, facendo un percorso suggestivo tra le menti che l'hanno creata e le loro geniali intuizioni. La fisica quantistica è nata dall'incrocio dei pensieri dei cervelli più grandi della scienza del XX secolo, e Gabriella Greison traccia questo sentiero fatto anche di slanci emotivi e colpi di scena, di litigi e di lunghe riflessioni.

"Il tempo è relativo, il suo unico valore è dato da ciò che noi facciamo mentre sta passando". Albert Einstein. La voce di Gabriella Greison, fisica, scrittrice e attrice teatrale, racconta in maniera semplice la fisica quantistica, facendo un percorso suggestivo tra le menti che l'hanno creata e le loro geniali intuizioni. La fisica quantistica è nata dall'incrocio dei pensieri dei cervelli più grandi della scienza del XX secolo, e Gabriella Greison traccia questo sentiero fatto anche di slanci emotivi e colpi di scena, di litigi e di lunghe riflessioni.

"I don't think I've ever read a book that paints such a complex and accurate landscape of what it is like to live with the legacy of trauma as this book does, while offering a comprehensive approach to healing." --from the foreword by Bessel van der Kolk A pioneering researcher gives us a new...

Best-selling author Chris Mooney uses cutting-edge research to explain the psychology behind why today’s Republicans reject reality - it’s just part of who they are. From climate change to evolution, the rejection of mainstream science among Republicans is growing, as is the denial of expert consensus on the economy, American history, foreign policy, and much more. Why won’t Republicans accept things that most experts agree on? Why are they constantly fighting against the facts?

"La logica vi porterà da A a B. L'immaginazione vi porterà dappertutto". Albert Einstein. La voce di Gabriella Greison, fisica, scrittrice e attrice teatrale, racconta in maniera semplice la fisica quantistica, facendo un percorso suggestivo tra le menti che l'hanno creata e le loro geniali intuizioni. La fisica quantistica è nata dall'incrocio dei pensieri dei cervelli più grandi della scienza del XX secolo, e Gabriella Greison traccia questo sentiero fatto anche di slanci emotivi e colpi di scena, di litigi e di lunghe riflessioni.

"Chi pensa di aver capito la fisica quantistica o è matto oppure mente". Richard Feynmann. La voce di Gabriella Greison, fisica, scrittrice e attrice teatrale, racconta in maniera semplice la fisica quantistica, facendo un percorso suggestivo tra le menti che l'hanno creata e le loro geniali intuizioni. La fisica quantistica è nata dall'incrocio dei pensieri dei cervelli più grandi della scienza del XX secolo, e Gabriella Greison traccia questo sentiero fatto anche di slanci emotivi e colpi di scena, di litigi e di lunghe riflessioni.

Siroccos, Santa Anas, chinooks, monsoons...the wind has as many names as moods. Few other forces have so universally shaped the lands and waters of the earth, the plants and animals, the patterns of exploration, settlement, and civilization. Few other phenomena have exerted such a profound influence on the history and psyche of humankind. Wind touches all of us every day of our lives, yet remarkably little has been written about it except as a component of the weather.

"La solitudine dovrebbe essere insegnata nelle scuole". Louis de Broglie. La voce di Gabriella Greison, fisica, scrittrice e attrice teatrale, racconta in maniera semplice la fisica quantistica, facendo un percorso suggestivo tra le menti che l'hanno creata e le loro geniali intuizioni. La fisica quantistica è nata dall'incrocio dei pensieri dei cervelli più grandi della scienza del XX secolo, e Gabriella Greison traccia questo sentiero fatto anche di slanci emotivi e colpi di scena, di litigi e di lunghe riflessioni.